Love Never Fails: Bridal Card

One of my co-workers and dear friends is getting married in April.  We are all so excited for her.  We followed triumphs and failures in her love life over the last few years and shared a lot of laughs and a few tears.  But she has found the nicest guy who just adores her and we are all giddy with joy.

I made this card for her bridal shower this weekend.

The background paper and chipboard are October Afternoon.  The sentiment is a Lily Bee journaling card.  I added a doily and a bit of pink tulle from my stash.  A quick and simple design.

I hope you have a great week. I'll be back on Friday with a new card and a fun giveaway as part of the promotion for the Spring issue of PaperHaus magazine.  The magazine contributors are participating in a blog hop that runs March 1 - 7.  There'll be lots of pretty projects and  prizes on every stop!

Trendy Twine: Project, Challenge & Giveaway

I grew up in a small town and I've always loved the down-home Fourth of July celebrations:  the parades, the cookout, the fireworks, the gatherings.  I tried to evoke that feeling of festivity in this card:

And here's a close-up. 

I'm so excited to be part of the Trendy Twine Design Team reveal for July.  We are featuring Berry Red twine, which is perfect for the Fourth, of course, but the classic red/white combination is a great go-to color for any project.  The Trendy Twine blog, Twine it Up!, is full of patriotic projects today featuring twine. There are so many fun and creative ideas on the blog. Check them out!

Trendy Twine has paired up with My Thoughts Exactly for a fun July 4th giveaway of twine and stamps.  It's super easy to enter.  Just head on over to the Facebook pages for Trendy Twine and My Thoughts Exactly and leave a comment by midnight EST on July 4.  Here's the prize:

Trendy Twine also has a new challenge posted for July with a great giveaway:  an extreme mini pack, which is 10 colors of Trendy Twine + 20 yards of the Berry twine we're featuring this month. You can find all the challenge details here under the Design Team projects. You can also purchase Trendy Twine here at Annie's Paper Boutique.  So many beautiful colors.  It will be hard to choose. Just warning you.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful  July 4th holiday.

Card Supplies:
CS: American Crafts
PP: Authentique Paper, Simple Stories
Stickers: October Afternoon, Simple Stories, Lily Bee
Wood veneer: Studio Calico
Punch: Fiskars
Twine: Trendy Twine
Paint: Plaid
Sewing machine: Bernina

An Early Valentine with Trendy Twine

I'm a firm believer that it's never really too early - or too late - to send a Valentine. I made this card using Little Yellow Bicycle's Cupcake Love and Trendy Twine's new Valentine twine.  The sentiment says: I love you cherry much.

The cherry was super easy to make. To wind twine into a circle:  punch a circle from cardstock and cover with adhesive of choice.  Cut about a foot of twine.  Tie a knot in one end.  Put the knot in the center of the circle and tightly wind the twine around the knot until you reach desired size. Trim any excess cardstock.  

Here's a closer look at the cherry on the card:

And here's a closer look at Trendy Twine's new Valentine Twine: It's pink and red swirled together.  Love that!

You can find our more about Trendy Twine here.   This card and other projects using the Valentine twine are featured on the Trendy Twine blog today.

Card supplies:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Little Yellow Bicycle and Crate Paper
Die Cut: My Mind's Eye
Felt cupcake: Little Yellow Bicycle
Border Punch: Fiskars
Paper Clip: K & Co.
Alpha Stickers: Lily Bee and Cosmo Cricket
Twine: Trendy Twine
Sewing Machine: Bernina

My Growing Boy

My baby is growing up too fast.  I caught him here last year, at age 1, before he was weaned from the bottle, dragging along his favorite blanket and toting along a puzzle. I'm so glad I thought to grab my camera and get these shots. They really take me back.  Cory went through a stage where he took that blanket and a puzzle everywhere he went: from room to room in the house, in the car, to the grocery store, at school, etc.  It was such the cutest stage.  I miss my baby!

I used the December "Naughty or Nice?" kit from Scraptastic Club.  It's full of a great mix of holiday papers from Lily Bee, Echo Park, Fancy Pants and Crate Paper.

Scraptastic Club sponsors challenges each month with great prizes. Come play along. There are four challenges and you have until Dec. 31 to upload your entries. The prize this month is the Random Collection from Crate Paper. Oh, I love that line!   You can find the challenges on the Scraptastic Club Blog here.

Favorite Gift Under The Tree

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I often find that I don’t scrap Christmas until well after the fact. Does this happen to you? One of the things I meant to document last year, but didn’t, was my son’s favorite Christmas present. Like so many boys his age - and older - he has an obsession with cars. In fact, this may well be a stage that boys never outgrow.

Under the tree last year, every present was wrapped except one: the Little People racetrack. My toddler is an early riser and we wanted him to have something special to find while everyone else was still nestled in bed. I got up with him at 6 am to see what Santa had brought. Cory couldn’t have been more excited. Even later that morning, as he opened present after present, he kept going back to his cars and the racetrack. It was his favorite present.

I created this layout with the Scraptastic Club’s December kit: Naughty or Nice. I’ve had such fun this month as guest designer. The kit club is running four challenges this month with a great prize: a collection kit from Crate Paper. You don’t have to use the kit to participate in challenges. You can find the details here.

Supplies:

CS: Bazzill Basics

PP: Lily Bee, Echo Park, Bo Bunny

Journaling card: Lily Bee

Wood Shapes: Studio Calico

Stickers: Crate, Echo Park

Letter Stickers: Lily Bee, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey

Border Punch: Fiskars

Circle Punch: Marvy Uchida

Pen: Zip

Ink: Ranger

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Kit: Scraptastic Club

Scraptastic Club Guest Designer

It’s December and I am so happy to welcome in the holiday season. Today, I officially start my December Daily and my little one opens the first door of his Lego Advent calendar.

But first I want to share that I am a guest designer this month for Scraptastic Club. It’s a great kit club that gives you a choice of two kits each month. Both kits have great add-on options too. You can find the kits here. 

I chose the Naughty or Nice? kit.

Here’s my first project. I scrapped a photo of my Dad with my brothers on Christmas morning. I love this Crate ornament paper. I pop-dotted some of the ornaments for dimension then set off the paper by adding borders punched from cream cardstock down either side.

The large green die cut is Bo Bunny and it had a blue scallop design around the perimeter, which made the die cut too big for my design.  So, I cut off the blue and stitched a red frame to ground the die cut. On top, I added a tag using a cute reindeer stamp from Imaginesce and alphas from Lily Bee.

Scraptastic Club sponsors challenges each month with great prizes. Come play along. The first challenge is to use border punches and you have until Dec. 31 to upload your entry. The prize this month is the Random Collection from Crate Paper. Oh, I love that line!   You can find the challenges on the Scraptastic Club Blog here.